1.07 Update

Today we are releasing our 1.07 update, which directly addresses some of the feedback we’ve received from the community and cranks up the dials on a number of systems. You’ll find weapons pack more of a punch, vehicles are faster, and there’s a bunch of free add-ons to unlock and game modes to try out over the coming days and weeks! We’ve also added new control options to help players get to grips with Combat Driving.

Not only that, we’ve got two new vehicles for you to take for a spin: the Scarab FAV and Barbarian tank, coming with a full range of new skins and a fresh set of add-ons!

There’s a load more fixes and tweaks in 1.07 and you can find more detailed patch notes in the Official Forums.

Free Sharefactory Theme

And there’s more — the official Hardware: Rivals Sharefactory theme is now available for free today. With your video editing skills use the official theme to show off your takedowns, lucky escapes, and impossible shots in the style that they deserve.

We’ll be rolling out regular updates and next month we’ll be adding a host of new free content, including…

Ranked Play Seasons

Now that you’ve gotten a grip on the essentials of combat driving, it’s time to prove yourself in our upcoming Ranked Play Seasons. By defeating drivers of equal status, you will earn your stripes and rise up through the ranks. The higher you climb, the tougher it gets — with only the best of the best reaching the top. There will be new, exclusive add-ons and skins to earn each Season as you rank up.

Special Events

The events calendar is filling up fast. This weekend, we’ll be running two special events, with brand new skins awarded to those who complete each event. There are plenty of mid-week and weekend events still to come, so get involved on the official community forum and tell us what event you would like to see!

A lot of people having been asking about new maps so here’s a quick teaser…

Mojito Bay

Looking for a lawless equatorial dictatorship where the launching of latest high-tech, black market ballistic weaponry is positively encouraged? Then Mojito Bay is just the place for you! Stalk your opponents through a rain-soaked naval yard in the shadow of a vast aircraft carrier, containing an experimental weapon system that every combat driver will want to try.

Hardware: Rivals is currently free for PlayStation Plus members this month, so be sure to download the game if you haven’t already. If it’s been a while since you last played, come back and give it another go!

We’ll be posting more details on this and other upcoming free content in the community forum. As always, we love to hear your feedback so keep the comments coming!

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/01/22/hardware-rivals-free-update-out-today-packs-a-punch/feed/32http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/23880396494_17ab00fc6c_z.jpg2.61Senior Producer, SCE Connected Content Group320Hardware: Rivals Brings Vehicular Mayhem to PS4 on January 5thhttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/12/16/hardware-rivals-brings-vehicular-mayhem-to-ps4-on-january-5th/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/12/16/hardware-rivals-brings-vehicular-mayhem-to-ps4-on-january-5th/#commentsWed, 16 Dec 2015 15:01:28 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=167260Locked, loaded, and engines firing. The lights are green and we’re good to go. Hardware: Rivals is coming exclusively to PS4 on January 5th, 2016 for $19.99 — and we’ve got some new updates to share with you today.

For those of you new to the game, Hardware: Rivals is an explosive, over-the-top, vehicle combat game where you pit yourself against other drivers in heavy tanks or fast attack vehicles. Battle online through multiple maps, game modes, challenges, and special events. As you take down your enemies, you will collect bounties for hunting your biggest rivals. You can play as a lone wolf or as part of a team.

We’ve been busy tweaking the game based on your feedback from October’s Beta trial, and also putting the finishing touches on a ton of new stuff. We’ve added another map, Outpost 92 — a frozen, deep core mining facility drowning in snow and ice, cut off in the face of an onrushing blizzard. It’s the ideal place to try out our new vehicles: the Sledgehammer (Tank) and Nomad (FAV). They’ll be lining up alongside the Predator and Wraith, ready for you to unleash devastation.

All four vehicles can acquire a whole load of skins and add-ons that you can use to customize the look of your vehicle. Whether you want to trick out your Hardware with a bunch of military gear, or just put a hula-skirt on your tank, there’s something for everyone. You can also upgrade the handling and weapons systems of each vehicle, catering for whatever engagement style suits you best.

There’s more game content coming very soon after launch, including new maps, vehicles, and game modes that we’ll be patching in as quickly as we can. We’ll also be publishing unique community events each week, mixing up modes, weapons and rewards, so keep an eye on the PlayStation community forums for more updates and previews from the dev team. We also put together a community Q&A based on some popular questions we received from our fans.

We appreciate the feedback and excitement we’ve received for Hardware: Rivals, and can’t wait for launch day to arrive. Keep the comments coming — we’re always listening.

]]>http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/12/16/hardware-rivals-brings-vehicular-mayhem-to-ps4-on-january-5th/feed/13http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/23748058666_b073946aee_z.jpg2.48Senior Producer, SCE Connected Content Group130New Pottermore Content in PS Homehttp://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/07/31/new-pottermore-content-in-ps-home/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/07/31/new-pottermore-content-in-ps-home/#commentsWed, 31 Jul 2013 15:01:18 +0000http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=111478We’ve brought the Sorting Ceremony to life before your eyes and provided a Hogwarts common room in which you can relax. We’ve challenged you with Charms and given you your very own Pottermore wand. The question is, ‘Where can Pottermore at PlayStation Home possibly go from here?’

If it were up to you, if there was a single ‘something new’ to be built within the world of Pottermore at PlayStation Home, what would you choose? Would you like to read a book in the majestic Hogwarts library? Fly on a broomstick? Enter the treacherous Forbidden Forest? Brave an underground chessboard chamber for a giant game of wizard chess? Luckily, you won’t need to choose because we’ve gone ahead and built the lot!

Explore the vast shelves and dusty nooks of the Library for scattered fragments of text from the Harry Potter books. Test your knowledge and your memory by piecing them together in an all-new Reading game.

Blaze a trail on your broomstick between the twisted oaks, broken beeches and ancient yews of the Forbidden Forest. Race against rivals, casting a range of spells to take and hold the lead. You can also play in Time Trial mode and challenge your opponents for a spot atop our highly competitive leaderboard. Do you have what it takes to become the fastest flier in Pottermore at PlayStation Home?

In the depths of Hogwarts castle, pit your wits against fellow students in the Chessboard Chamber. The enchanted, giant chessmen will be keen to lend you their advice but that’s not to say that you should always take it. Play as a king, a rook or even a pawn; but remember, in the Chessboard Chamber it’s not just the king that your opponent will be after. Once you’ve been taken, the game will end as resolutely as if you had fallen for a fool’s mate! This is a truly fresh and magical take on the age-old game of kings.

Thirteen years after the first book was published, it was announced that J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series would be getting its own free interactive online experience built around the books.

Pottermore.com opened to all on April 14th, 2012, allowing fans across the world to delve deeper into the world of Harry Potter, illuminating the stories with a mix of evocative interactive artwork called ‘Moments’, a range of exciting mini-games and over 20,000 new words from the author herself.

As well as housing a dedicated social platform, Pottermore became the exclusive online retailer of the Harry Potter eBooks, which until then had never been available.

Over the last two years, we’ve been working closely with the Pottermore team to take that unique online experience one step further. Taking inspiration from the Pottermore universe, we have developed fully-realised 3D environments, packed full of mini-games and activities, allowing you to step inside Pottermore in ways never possible before now.

The team here at the London Studio has been working tirelessly to bring a bit of magic into PlayStation Home, and we are so proud to finally reveal it to you.

In our first release, you’ll be entering the world of Harry Potter by taking a trip to Diagon Alley and boarding the Hogwarts Express. You’ll find a multitude of fun things to do:

Go head to head with two to four players in Book Herding. Round up a consignment of escaped magical books and return them to their cages before any of the other players. Be careful though, your opponents will be out to stop you, using spells and general craftiness to impede your progress and scatter your books at the most inopportune moments.

Around the Pottermore spaces on PlayStation Home, you may discover hidden collectible Pottermore Trading Cards. You might also gain cards by participating in mini-games. In order to trade these cards with people you will need to have an account on Pottermore.com, have progressed past Chapter Seven of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and have been sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses (Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw). Link your account via our handy Navigator App, and you’re all set! Haggle for doubles and trade for the cards you’re missing at one of our dedicated trading tables. Be the first to complete your collection!

Kit yourself out in a range of Hogwarts house robes and accessories from Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions or Twilfitt and Tatting’s in Diagon Alley. Pick up a friendly companion from the Magical Menagerie or, if it’s owls you love, visit Eeylops and choose your bird from their finest selection.

Approach the slightly dubious character at the end of the Hogwarts Express to gain access to an illicit Wizard’s Duel. Practise your moves and prepare to duel. Jump right in via Quickstart, or develop rivalries and pick your opponents via the Game Lobby.

Pack your Puffskein, board the Hogwarts Express and test your knowledge of the wizarding world with a Pottermore quiz for two to six players. The first to ten correct answers wins. If more than one player gets to ten correct answers at the same time, you’ll enter tiebreaker mode!

We’re really excited to bring you this content, and we hope you enjoy this first venture into the world of Pottermore at PlayStation Home. Believe me, there’s more to come….